'Get paid to surf' plan spawns local spam

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

A "get paid to surf" scheme launched in New Zealand last month has angered local internet users following an outbreak of "spam" e-mails and postings designed to recruit new members.

The scheme run by California-based AllAdvantage.com, which promises to pay users 50USc ($1) per hour simply for surfing the net, has been operating in the United States since last April.

AllAdvantage chief executive officer Jim Jorgensen reported on the company's web site that the scheme had attracted 4 million members worldwide by December 17. This figure represented 4 per cent of the estimated total universe of internet users worldwide, according to research by Jupiter Communications.

AllAdvantage members download a "viewbar" displaying advertising as they use the web. This keeps a tally of the time the user spends online. Payments are currently capped at 25 hours per month online or $US12.50, but users are promised unlimited earnings by referring friends and associates to the scheme. Further payments are made when these "direct referrals" recruit yet more members who are known as "extended referrals." Up to four levels of extended referrals are allowed.

Despite AllAdvantage's claim that it "strictly forbids spamming," the referrals system has led to a number of anonymous postings to local newsgroups as well as e-mails from members seeking to recruit new members. In an effort to prove the scheme was not a scam, one posting on the nz.comp newsgroup included an address of a web site featuring scanned payment cheques from AllAdvantage.

Another member, signing himself simply as "Sam" posted a message on the job.co.nz recruitment web site urging surfers to join the scheme.

"Last month, more than 30 AllAdvantage members earned well over US $US1000 each and the top earner pulled in more than $4400," would-be members were assured.

Hugh McKellar, chief executive of internet service provider Iconz, received an e-mail (in copy to 50 other addresses) from an AllAdvantage member looking for fresh blood. The e-mail claimed that earnings paid to members had totalled over $10 million.

"It looked quite interesting," said Mr McKellar, "but I don't know much about it, or whether anyone has actually been paid."

"There's been a lot of talk about this but as far as I know no one has actually made the model work. It might work in the States but I can't see it working in a country as small as New Zealand. In my experience, with free models you tend to get what you pay for."

Peter Sutton, assistant chief executive of the Consumers Institute, said the scheme fell outside the scope of anti-pyramid marketing legislation as members were offered payment regardless of whether they referred others.

"In that respect it probably doesn't [break the law] because your income is not wholly dependent on other people."